Seattle Eats

Image by conjunction3 via Flickr

We just got back from an anniversary trip to Seattle. Because the kids were elsewhere we had the unusually delightful pleasure of being able to eat whatever we wanted. If you've been cooking for picky kids for over a decade then you understand just how remarkable this is.

We decided that, given our relatively limited funds for this adventure, we'd rather spend less on fancy lodgings and more on good food and that was a brilliant decision! We stayed in a little studio apartment in an old building right downtown. I was a little hesitant to rent it sight unseen but when Google maps showed its location to be directly across the street from the Dahlia Bakery, out came my debit card and a reservation was made!

What I didn't realize until we arrived was that our budget studio was located right in the middle of chef Tom Douglas' Seattle dining empire. We stayed two doors down from Lola, across the street from The Dahlia Lounge, around the corner from Serious Pie and a block away from Palace Kitchen. We'd planned to have a fancy dinner at one of these well-reviewed restaurants but when we arrived in Seattle, ravenous after a 3+ hour train ride and with time to kill before we could check in to our rental apartment, we decided it was a perfect time to try Lola.

This was probably the best of many good meals on this trip. It may have been due to our hunger after the long train ride or the playing hooky feeling of ditching the kids and skipping town or maybe just plain fantastic food--whatever, this was a meal to remember. Lola's menu is Greek inspired but features fine local ingredients. We started with freshly baked pita served with skordalia, a delicious potato garlic spread. I had amazing grilled salmon kebabs served with more pita, a lovely, tangy tzatziki and amazing "smashed" potatoes which were like no potato I'd ever eaten: golden and crunchy outside with creamy insides. Unbelievable. We were unnecessarily tempted by dessert and probably and ended up overstuffed and not nearly as delighted as we'd been by the meal itself but overall it was fantastic.

We spent the afternoon and evening wandering and, remarkably, ended up hungry again after hiking up to Capitol Hill hours later. There are plenty of restaurants along Broadway but none really caught our eye until we came to Galerias Gourmet Mexican Restaurant. A quick scan of their menu showed that this is definitely not your average burrito bomb Mexican place but a place that had a variety of interesting looking, unusual dishes. We stepped inside to some truly fabulous, over the top decor: bright colors everywhere, huge paintings of intense Biblically inspired scenes, and the tallest fake flower arrangement I've ever seen. We were seated in the shadow of the awe-inspiring monster bouquet but quickly forgot it once our food came. The trio of salsas which came as a starter was delicious. Each was distinctive, well balanced, and clearly made with care. The giant, tasty margarita was quite good and a definite bargain. My entree was poblano chiles stuffed with cheese and grilled veggies and wrapped in a light, buttery pastry which was an vast improvement over the usual soggy, eggy batter found clinging to chiles rellenos.

Other great meals included an egg and asparagus sandwich on a homemade English muffin at the Dahlia Bakery, delicious chai and kheer at Traveler's Cafe, salted caramel ice cream at Molly Moon's, a delightful brunch at the Dahlia Lounge (scrambled eggs with asparagus and Cougar Gold cheese and a bing cherry margarita), and some super simple but fantastic roasted corn from a cart. All so good!

20

Today is a typical day: lesson planning, kid schlepping, laundry...pretty much the usual with one notable exception. It's also our 20th wedding anniversary. Twenty years! I can't believe I'm old enough to have done anything for 20 years but there you have it.

We decided to celebrate with a getaway to Seattle last weekend. The kids went off to stay with my wonderful, fabulous mother-in-law while we caught the train and headed north for a few days.

On of the frustrating parts of planning this trip was the outrageous prices for hotels in downtown Seattle. Even the simplest ones are shockingly expensive and, we imagined, probably completely lacking in charm in our price range. I kept searching and searching for something that didn't require a second mortgage and one day up popped airbnb in my search results, where we found a very inexpensive studio perfectly situated for our visit. We stayed on the second floor of The Virginian Apartments, overlooking busy 4th avenue:

We didn't really head out with much in the way of firm plans but we had a guidebook or two for ideas. We ended up at both the Olympic Sculpture Garden and the Ballard Locks on the same surprisingly beautiful day.

We walked for miles, we ate fantastic meals, and truly had a marvelous time.

Here are a few favorite photos:
And perhaps my favorite of all:
Here's to the next 20 years!

Go By Train

With an early morning blood draw, the loss of my bank card, a mammogram, and endless Passover cleaning and prep to do, this isn't turning out to be such a great day. So let me procrastinate further and tell you a bit about yesterday, which was quite delightful.

We joined a bunch of other homeschooling families for a day trip to Seattle via Amtrak. This required being downtown and fully awake before 8 am which was slightly traumatic, but we pulled ourselves together. The Dark Lord had yet another day off school so he joined us. I don't get to do so many things with all my kids anymore and I was delighted to have him along.

The train ride itself provided many hours of enjoyment for the kids, especially the little ones who enjoyed traveling without the restrictions of seat belts and car seats.

Once in Seattle, we decided to visit the central branch of the public library, which is a truly stunning structure. The Spouse is the real architecture enthusiast in our family, but I found the building absolutely breathtaking and had a field day taking pictures. After the library we walked down to the Pike Place Market. We failed to locate one particular vendor from whom we'd hoped to purchase a bar mitzvah present for MonkeyBoy's dear friend, but we had lots of fun wandering and eating piroshky and crumpets.We were pretty well worn out by the time we walked back to the train station for our return trip. I thought it would be quieter on the train what with all those worn out kids but they seemed determined to get the most out of every minute and they played hard until the train pulled into the station back in Portland.

An Outing

The Spouse was able to rearrange things at work and I am still desperately trying to deny Passover's imminent approach so we decided that a trip to Seattle sounded much more pleasant than cleaning kitchen cupboards.

We packed up the kids after a long debate about bringing laptops along. Needless to say I found that issue less urgent than my boys did and, to punish me, they spent the first 30 minutes of the 3 hour drive squabbling loudly. Then, praise God, they fell asleep. The Princess kept busy with a bag of amusements I'd packed for her so "when-do-we-get-there?" wasn't repeated too many times.

It wad a gorgeous, sunny day and we were blessed with very little traffic and an easy entry into Seattle despite its mind boggling freeway system which includes numerous mysterious offshoots and exits off both the right and the left sides which strikes me as particularly demented and makes for slightly stressed out day trippers. After wedging the mighty minivan into a tiny underground parking space with a whole 4 inches to spare on either side, we walked out down to the Pike Place Market, a Seattle institution that I loved visiting as a kid. There's enough going on there to keep everyone interested and amused for the day.

We met up with good friends who were also visiting the city this week. The Princess and her best buddy posed for pictures with the pig:We did a little shopping, lots of browsing, and lots of eating (which is described in detail, with photos, here). I enjoyed showing my children some of the things I remembered from childhood visits to my beloved aunt including the original Starbucks, the crumpet shop, and Market Spice tea.

We gave each of the boys a little spending money to play with and they'd brought a bit of their own. MonkeyBoy spent a few dollars on tooth destroying candy and then gave quite a bit of money to the street performers. As we were leaving the market and walking back to the car at the end of the day a woman who was clearly needy asked us for a little something. I gave her a couple of dollars and then noticed MonkeyBoy reaching for his wallet once again. He was a bit troubled but gave the lady the $5 bill that he had left. He actually hesitated because, he later told me, he'd planned on using that money as his contribution to the MS Walk in 2 weeks. Maybe it's easy for him to give away money because he's rarely ever earned it, but I was very proud of his generosity. Given what an absolute pill he can be much of the time, it does me good to know he has such a giving and non-judgmental nature.

The Dark Lord seemed to have a fine time despite spending a fair amount of time showing us the teen attitude he's perfecting these days. (I've recently stumbled upon the term bershon which pretty much sums it up.) What amazes me is how the kid manages to retain the bored/cool/whatever look while chowing down on a giant cookie! His observations on the day in Seattle can be found here.

It's not such a long drive, really, and The Princess travels well as long as I have the foresight to burn through a bunch of ink downloading enough things from Enchanted Learning to keep her entertained, so we might make the trip more often. A change of scenery is good.